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Power play leads Wild past Red Wings

Sep 21, 2007 - 2:13 AM By Chuck Klonke PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

DETROIT (Ticker) -- Pierre-Marc Bouchard, defenseman Brent Burns and Brian Rolston scored power-play goals Thursday to lift the Minnesota Wild to a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings and a split of their home-and-home preseason series.

The win avenged a 6-1 loss at Minnesota on Wednesday. The Red Wings used an entirely different lineup than the one it put forth that night, while several members of the Wild played both contests.

Minnesota carried a 3-1 lead into the third period, but Detroit's Mattias Ritola halved the deficit when he beat goaltender Josh Harding high to the glove side with a wrist shot at 8:27.

Bouchard opened the scoring at 19:24 of the first period. Detroit goaltender Dominik Hasek stopped Marian Gaborik's initial shot, but Pavol Demitra sent the rebound to Bouchard, who converted a wrister from the left side.

Burns made it 2-0 at 9:14 of the second period, beating Hasek after taking a cross-ice pass from Eric Belanger.

Mark Hartigan cut the Wild's lead to one goal when he knocked in a rebound 14 minutes into the second period. Hartigan and linemates Matt Ellis and Brett Engelhardt, who both assisted on the goal, are among the players battling for a spot on the Red Wings' roster.

Rolston restored Minnesota's two-goal advantage with 2:09 remaining, when he beat Jimmy Howard, who replaced Hasek midway through the session.

Detroit sat out several regulars, including forwards Pavel Datsyuk, Kirk Maltby, Johan Franzen and Tomas Holmstrom and defensemen Brian Rafalski and Chris Chelios. All were healthy scratches except for Rafalski, who suffered a hip pointer during practice on Wednesday.